Use Your Head is an interactive urban projection produced by MediaLAB Amsterdam together with the Filmwerkstatt Munster for the Flurstucke Festival. The audience can play a game where they use their own head as an avatar on the characteristic facade of the Diozesan Bibliothek. The goal of the game is to find a balance between Culture and Industry. By playing this game, they intend to make the public reflect on the use of public space for cultural or commercial purposes.

The project is developed by students of the MediaLAB Amsterdam, of the Applied University of Amsterdam (Hogeschool van Amsterdam). They worked with the creative producers Jan Scholte & Gijs Gootjes, and the project was assigned by Winfried Bettmer and the Filmwerkstatt Munster.

The students who participated in the project are:

Guido Huijser – producer

Natta Frank – producer

Oskar Moleman – graphic designer

Janek van Abeelen – programmer

Thijs Last – 3D designer

Artists:

Interaction Designer: Arne Boon

Visual artist: Felix Kraemer

Code Guru: Wouter Reckman

Sound designer: Michiel Nijhof Samplemaster

Click here to view the embedded video.

“We were very proud of this project because it was the first urban projection that we did. It’s remarkable because it shows what a group of students can do in one semester”, added Gootjes

The next project that Gootjes and his students worked on was an interactive projection for MuseumNacht (Amsterdam’s museum night) on the Trouw building in Amsterdam (the building we are in today for the Urban Screens conference). As a part of this project, Gootjes and his students designed an interactive music application where, via a touchscreen,the participants of MuseumNacht were invited to mix together a 10-second music loop filled with various sounds and beats. As the music loops played, visuals were projected on the outside of the Trouw building that reacted in-time and to the beat.

Click here to view the embedded video.